Category: General

Don’t Desert Ukraine in this Hour

Time flies by so quickly these days that it’s hard to believe that last Saturday marked the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It’s not exactly the kind of event that calls for celebration. I may have been more attuned to the Feb. 24 occasion than others because of growing up with an ever-present…
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Living Among Ordinary Angels

For the first time in a year, this weekend my wife and I will be back in a movie theater to see the new release, Ordinary Angels. Just as Kelsey Grammar lent star power to the last theatrical release we saw, Jesus Revolution, Hilary Swank plays the lead role. And, like Jesus Revolution, this film…
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Newspapers’ Demise is Bad News

Since the news appeared during the recent holiday season, many people may have missed the story about the demise of U.S. newspapers. A report in Axios said the decline accelerated so rapidly last year that by the end of 2024 the nation will have lost a third of the newspapers it had in 2005. Originally,…
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Money: A Vain Search for Satisfaction

I heard the story on our car radio during a recent road trip: nearly 60% of Americans think money can buy happiness. They even put a price tag on it: $1.2 million. Later at home, I looked up the study by the financial services firm that served as the source for the CNBC report. It…
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Leaving a Legacy of Treasures

I recently attended a memorial service for a friend, a woman whom I would describe as a sparkplug. Linda had been a teacher, community leader, choir director, church member, and entrepreneur who maintained a positive outlook no matter what the situation. What a legacy! She had moved south to Florida to live with family a…
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Deepfakes Demand More Intelligence

Even though it had been around for quite a while, I only recently heard the term “deepfakes.” The recent college graduate who introduced me to it explained it refers to phony videos or other graphic creations of people, places or events that don’t exist. Sadly, in the age of rapidly advancing Artificial Intelligence, I fear…
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The Impact of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a trait many of us applaud and agree we all need to extend to others. That is, until we must actually do it. That’s why the recent story of a New England pastor who forgave the drunk driver that smashed into his family’s car moved me so powerfully. Not just because Terry Dorsett…
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Keeping up with Taylor Swift

I’m not a Swiftie. Never have been and don’t expect to become one. Were I to go around singing Taylor Swift music or paying a king’s ransom to attend one of her concerts, my grandchildren would say, “Act your age, old man.” Still, I did read the recent cover story on her in Time magazine.…
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Churches Don’t Need Celebrities

I worked once on a story about church life for a ministry-oriented magazine. Though not focused on megachurches, I needed to talk with a couple people who had stopped attending one. Though it took awhile to connect, when I did one of them made a comment that struck me as odd: “I’m not even sure…
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Ghosted… Again?

Earlier this year, a fellow freelancer told me he had passed along my name to a publisher looking for editing help. Before the publisher and I talked, I looked over the organization’s website and liked what I saw. In our conversation, I learned the job was strictly editing: condensing material from transcribed interviews and adding…
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